A few months ago a private record collector invited me to his house down in the OC to hang out, listen to records, and buy a couple LPs from him. I spent the better part of a day there, mostly just scanning his shelves for titles I didn’t recognize and looking them up on the web to see if I needed to own them. The whole time he was in the other room cueing up different records that he thought might blow my mind. The first two were by far the most far-out of the bunch: Brast Burn’s “Debon” and Karuna Khyal’s “Alomoni”. The third record he played was Lard Free’s “I’m Around About Midnight.” Not as jaw-dropping as the other two (in the ongoing battle between Japan psych versus French prog the Japanese normally win) but still really cool.
Lard Free was masterminded by Richard Pinhas (of Heldon fame) and “I’m Around About Midnight” was the band’s second album. It saw Pinhas (along with Gilbert Artman on piano/drums/sax and Alan Audat & Antoine Duvernot on sax) drawing more influence from their German progressive peers. I can definitely hear a bit of Faust at different points during some of these songs. Maybe it’s just the Pinhas connection, but it’s also reminiscent of Heldon’s second album but a bit more percussive? There’s also a good amount of synth for all you Schulze/Tangerine Dream fans. “I’m Around About Midnight” is simply a solid record from start-to-finish. I’d put it up there with some of Heldon’s best recordings, and it’s kind of awesome because how many bands other than Lard Free did France produce that pretty much played German Krautrock? I can’t think of any, can you!? Name ‘em!
Lard Free
I’m Around About Midnight
Vamp, 1975
RapidShare DL Link
01. Violez L’espace de son Refrigerant
02. In A Desert-Alambic
03. Does East Bakestan Belong To Itself
04. Tatkooz A Roulette
05. Pale Violence Under A Reverbre
06. Even Silence Stops When Trains Come
April 28th, 2011
This is great. Well done. Ticks all the boxes.
Have you heard Golem by Sand? No? Why not?
April 28th, 2011
Heya from London. Just wanted to say that I’ve read every post for the past three years and your’re aces! Keep it coming
April 28th, 2011
“Donald” – Haven’t I previously posted “Ultrasonic Seraphim” before? If not I’ll do that this week…”Golem” is one of the three most sought after records on my want list.
Sarah – Thanks! Keep reading. Tell your friends.
April 28th, 2011
Now you’re talkin! Lard Free is amazing! Of course Brast Burn and Karuna Khyal is too! And Sand? Now you’re talking my language. A copy of Ultrasonic Seraphim (with the Current 93 disc) is among my prize cds.
April 28th, 2011
You may well have posted it before. I’m 92 and have no long term memory.
What about Ages by Edgar Froese? That record makes you levitate.
April 29th, 2011
Froese I definitely haven’t posted. I’ll look into it tho…I like to levitate.
April 29th, 2011
Whoa, great album. Glad to have you back in action!
April 29th, 2011
Ages sucks though… how about Epsilon/Malaysian Pale? The current cd (which is the only version I now own) replaced all the yummy mellotron with new, cold and soulless digital synth shit. I’d love to again hear the original. Froese is a bit of an asshole for removing original instruments and not at least giving us an option to hear the original as we knew it from our youth.
May 1st, 2011
Tyler Kent is right. Epsilon and Malaysian Pale are both better albums than Ages, but strangely Ages touches my inner synth